Military Museum in Belgrade
Ustashas escort people from Kozara to Jasenovac camp, Bosanska Dubica, July 1942
Eight decades ago, the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church sent the first of four memoranda to the occupation command of the German army in Serbia, in which they presented numerous atrocities committed in the first and second years of the war on the territory of the newly established Independent State of Croatia. All these documents were recently published in the collection “Memoranda of the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church 1941-1942. years to the military-administrative commanders of Serbia “. It is a capital part in which four memoranda were presented to the general public for the first time, and the author of the collection is Veljko Đurić Mišina, long-term director of the Museum of Genocide Victims in Belgrade.
Church dignitaries also pointed out to the German command in Serbia the fact that a large number of Serbs were imprisoned and then taken to concentration camps.
“In all places where there are Serbs, imprisonment is a daily occurrence. People are being imprisoned without trial or hearing, and in large numbers. Many of them are not known where they are: many have been taken to concentration camps. According to many sure signs, those taken in unknown directions were killed. In addition to many slain priests, immediately after the Ustashas took power in Sarajevo, the old Sarajevo Metropolitan Petar Zimonjic, the greatest moral authority of the Serbian Church, was taken away. At the beginning, he was interned in Kerestinec, and as it is heard, these days he was transported to Lika with one transport of priests and prominent citizens. It is heard that with all these implemented, life is in danger. Metropolitan Dositej, who was seriously ill, was also expelled from Zagreb, when the Ustashas were terribly mistreated and tortured, tearing his beard and beating him. According to the testimony of Mihailo Kovacevic, an official of the Church Court in Plaski, on July 17, the Ustashas took Bishop Sava Trlajic in an unknown direction. They took his money and robbed him of his belongings. The Ustasha apartment and the political municipality moved into the Church Court “, are just some of the horrible details that the Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church united in the first Memorandum sent to the German occupation command in Serbia.
They displaced entire villages
It is further stated that during all these arrests, the Ustasha authorities did not allow Serbs to take food or clothes with them.
“Thus, for example, about 1,000 Serb families were arrested and expelled in Dalj without anything anywhere. During the trip of several days to Brcko, they did not receive any food. In the village of Veljun, Slunj district, 350 Serbs were arrested, of whom only 50 were beaten and mutilated and returned home.
Lately, entire villages and towns have been displaced. According to eyewitnesses, many towns and villages have already been displaced, such as Banja Luka, Bihac and all the villages around Plitvice Lakes. During this violent deportation, very difficult scenes take place, because the Ustashas treat the deportees very drastically, usually ordering them to get ready for the trip in half an hour, taking their luggage, money and valuables with them; they have to hand over the key to the house to the Ustasha authorities and under the threat of ceding their property to the Croatian state. After gathering all the deportees from one place, they started a detailed search, confiscating money, jewelry and valuables, leaving at best 500 dinars per family. “
Violent conversion to Catholicism
The Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church warned the German authorities in Serbia that the Ustasha regime was turning many Orthodox Serbs into Catholicism by terror.
“The offer for Catholicization was first made to state officials of the Orthodox faith. All of them were given forms in which they had to answer the questions asked, ie checks. Their attention was drawn to the fact that only those who accept the Catholic faith can remain in the civil service. And not only that. The Catholic Church uses violent measures to force the Orthodox to perform Catholic rites. According to the testimony of Janko Bjegović, the parish priest of the Krbavica parish, the Diocese of Upper Karlovac, Catholic priests come with armed Ustashas, close Orthodox churches and confiscate church registers because they previously robbed all church valuables. Proto Atanasija Bogić, secretary of the Church Court of Pakrac, testified that on June 12, Catholic priests entered the episcopal court in Pakrac and occupied the office there, and sealed the Cathedral. “
Temple in Pakrac, parish home and public fountain
The case of Zorka Kozomorić
“A particularly tragic case happened with Zorka Kozomarić, the wife of Žarko Kozomarić, a merchant from Bihać, who was taken to an unknown place before her. Due to great excitement and fear, she was poisoned with acetic acid when they told her that she had to be ready to leave in half an hour with her three small children. The oldest child was six years old, and the youngest was four years old. The youngest died of a brain inflammation that night. “There are cases when men and women, especially the elderly, are subject to sudden death due to great excitement,” the documents state.
The village of Ivanjska near Banja Luka: Ustasha Pezic Ante, Ceric Meho, Franjo Lukanac and Kolakovic Macak with the severed head of a Serb
Deportations of priests
“In the last days, the Ustasha authorities undertook the integral deportation of all Orthodox priests to the territory of the Croatian state, with their families. When it is known that there are eight Orthodox dioceses in that territory, with a large number of priests, then one can understand all the horror of these measures, especially when one considers that priestly families are also forcibly deported. In that way, the Orthodox Serbian people are left without spiritual pastors, left at the mercy of the Ustasha Catholic authorities “, warned the Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church.
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